


Fantastical Romances

by pauraque



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Genre: Fifteen Minute Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-02-11
Updated: 2004-02-11
Packaged: 2017-10-27 10:03:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/294533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pauraque/pseuds/pauraque
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will is bound to tell his story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fantastical Romances

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 15 Minute Ficlets. The prompt was "submission".

'Well, Mr...' The publisher adjusted his monocle at the sheaf of inkstained papers on his desk. '...Mr Turner. I have read your manuscript twice over, and I must say, we are very interested indeed. There is a great call for fantastical romances of this type.'

Will fidgeted, smoothing out his trousers with both palms. Even in his middle age, he had never quite regained the ease of proper behavior he'd cultivated so carefully in his early years. 'Thank you sir, that's most flattering. But I must remind you that my manuscript is not a romance, but a factual account.'

The publisher shifted uncomfortably. He tapped his quill against the desk blotter. 'Ah... yes. I'm certain you'll forgive a certain— ah— scepticism on my part, regarding that. Is it not generally understood that this... Captain Sparrow is a personage of romantic fictions, and not historical reality? At best, an amalgamation of various legends and archetypes—'

'He seemed not so when I knew him,' Will said shortly.

The publisher frowned. 'I see. But these stories...' He licked his fingertip and paged through the manuscript. '...for example, incurring the curse of the Aztec savages. And later on, the business of the escape from the Spanish Armada, one can't quite imagine— Ah, and the boiling of the cannibal chief alive in his own pot, now, I hardly see how—'

'That was self-defence,' Will broke in. 'We didn't know in advance that completing the sacrifice would have such an... explosive effect.'

'Ah... ha.' Looking nonplussed, the publisher cleared his throat. 'Yes, well. Regardless of the veracity of your manuscript, we would like to make you an offer for it. There is only one small editorial matter... that of the ending.' He nudged again at his monocle. 'You have here that Sparrow disappears after the theft of the alchemical stone, which is quite all right, but I do wonder at this business where he's secured — the narrator — to a tree, and then... ah, here it is. _"I asked him why he had betrayed me, in the full expectation that he should repeat his habitual explanation that piracy levels all usual moral senses. However, in this instance, he had no answer for me but a pass of his lips over mine which lasted a minute or more."_ Now, Mr Turner, I am not entirely certain this is congruent— That is to say, it seems a bit _strange_ —'

'None the less, that is the way it happened,' Will said. The sun glared off the sea through the publisher's dusty windows, making him squint. He smiled a little. 'Captain Sparrow was nothing if not... a bit strange.'


End file.
